"Our lives are
songs;
God writes the
words.
And we set them to music at
leisure;
And the song is sad, or the song
is glad
As we choose to fashion the
measure."
"We must write the
song,
Whatever the
words,
Whatever the rhyme or
meter,
And if it be sad, we must make
it glad,
And if sweet, we must make it
sweeter."
THE philosophy of
New Thought offers a key to the
essential life--the life worthwhile.
New Thought is a philosophy of life. It
leads man out of the labyrinths of
weakness, doubt, and darkness into the
sunlight of hope, strength, and
courage.
The art of living is
the art of thinking, for life has no
values except as thought molds them--
except as thought creates ideals for
the individual to shape and pattern his
life after. How we shall live is the
most momentous question for man's
thought and consideration. It is
paramount because during its existence
we mold character, either good or bad,
which is the only asset we carry away
at its close.
Life is not built to
any fixed plan. One ideal will not
suffice for all lives. Individuals
cannot follow the same guide, because
all persons differ and the orbits of
their respective lives cannot be the
same. Each person is endowed with some
distinct and superior quality. The real
purpose of his life should be to
develop that gift and bring it into
activity and expression.
We must, therefore,
begin with the proposition that life is
an individual function, a problem for
each person to work out in the manner
best suited to his own individuality.
Each must be shaped by his own ideal.
Each must follow his own line of
cleavage.
The inquiry is often
made, What is the ultimate purpose in
life? Of course, millions would say
that the real object in life is to
observe certain formulas and
requirements that will secure one a
safe place in the next world when death
ensues. But this does not answer the
question or satisfy the inquiring
mind.
Every man has one
supreme ideal. Every man is turning his
thought toward the future, with the
hope of reaching one great result. What
is this inward longing, what is all
this striving, the labors of life, what
is the goal of all man's efforts, but
happiness? Ultimate happiness is the
motive power of life. The search for
happiness, however, should be
distinguished from the search for
pleasure.
No two persons will
agree on what constitutes ultimate
happiness. Therefore no common ideal
can be set up and established, by which
to reach that desired state. One may
think wealth to be the direct means of
producing happiness, another travel.
another work, another duty and service.
We all map out and travel different
roads to arrive at the one desired
result. The essential fact is not what
we may think will be productive of
happiness, for the greater part of our
thinking along these lines is defective
and illusory; but the important thought
for consideration is what, in fact,
will lead us to the coveted goal.
Our lives and
energies are largely wasted in an
endeavor to follow our ideals of
happiness. We spend the larger portion
of life in discovering and laying aside
out cherished illusions and discarded
ideals. Our greatest illusions, the
ones that most monopolize our thought
and energies, are those we treasure of
happiness. They fade away and vanish as
we travel along the highways of life.
After all, we gain much wisdom from
Nature. If we have eyes to see, or ears
to hear she will furnish guides that
will pilot us safely toward the
essential life, which in its
last analysis and ultimate
meaning is a life of happiness.
Happiness has been
defined as the warm glow of a heart at
peace with itself. How to find
happiness as here defined, how to
possess it, how to make it our own, is
one of the great arts and secrets of
life. To study the art of living, we
should begin with certain fundamental
truths which form the basis of all
constructive thought about life.
Without these fundamentals we can only
travel the rugged and difficult path of
experience. We should know something of
the laws that enter into life, that
shape and give it destiny, before we
can bring intelligence and
understanding to a discussion of the
art of living.
Without a study of
the nature of man, the mysterious power
of the mind which controls him,
something of our relationship with
Nature and the universe, the law or
causation, the greatness of man, our
approach to a knowledge of the
essential life will be slow and
tedious. We might as well try to sail
the trackless seas without compass and
without chart, as to sail life's seas
without these pilots.
We should begin with
the law of causation, the law of cause
and effect, written everywhere in
Nature. This law enters into life in
every moment of time. Whatsoever a man
soweth, that shall he also reap. This
law is as absolute in the regulation of
mind and thought as in directing the
orderly movements of the physical
universe. Man is under the dominion of
law, and every thought is manifested in
outward life.
Life is ruled by a
spiritual helmsman.Truth exacts
constructive thinking. Thought is the
great factor in life. Right thought
means right living. Constructive
thought means constructive life.
Negative thought means an empty and
negative life.
The kind and quality
of thought determines the kind and
quality of life. Thought is expressed
in the personality and molds the
outward circumstances of life. It is
manifested in life's results. We
receive that which is our due; nothing
more, nothing less. We pay the price;
we do not get something for nothing. We
take out of life only what we put in.
Only as we take to life a full soul, do
we live a full life. If we carry into
life an empty soul, our reward is a
desolate and barren life. Life yields
only what it receives. These truths
should sink deep into the understanding
as they light the pathway that leads to
the art of living.
It follows as a
natural sequence that the violation of
these laws brings its own swift and
relentless punishment. If we break
them, Nature sets up her impediments,
we are frustrated in our efforts, we
fail to reach the real in life. The
converse is also true. If we keep them,
Nature smiles her approval and we reach
out toward the constructive and
essential in life.
Then, everywhere we
are reminded of the unity of life, that
universal life and intelligence that
pervade the universe, manifesting and
expressing itself in all objective
Nature--the grass blade, the flower,
the bird, and in man--reaching its
highest manifestation in human
life.
When we come into
the realization of this fact and feel
the growing import of its truth, Nature
seems a little kinder, the flower has a
new meaning, man appears greater, our
fellow-man a little nearer, and Nature
puts on a more human aspect. We can
feel harmonious vibrations everywhere,
and see revelations of splendor,
beauty, and meaning in every bud and
leaf. It enlarges our conceptions of
life to find ourselves linked to the
Great Oversoul that is forever seeking
unfoldment and expression in our lives.
This thought is creative. It awakens
within us an inspiration for
development and achievement. It places
before us an ideal, to lead us along
the upper pathway of life. The
consciousness of this truth enlarges
man's spiritual and mental
vision. It is a starting-point on the
journey toward the real achievements of
life. It gives one courage to grapple
with the larger problems of life and
efficiency to solve them wisely.
Then, too, life is
individual and each person must follow
his own path. Be yourself, live your
own life, is the message of the great
in every age. Man makes himself
miserable by attempting to follow the
blazed trail of others. Man can only
work to one pattern, and that one is
his own. Be yourself. Remember that you
are an infinite soul and that no human
standard will serve you as an ideal.
Think your own thoughts, even though
they jostle the entrenched thoughts of
the ages.
The essential life
is not found by traveling the path of
conventionalities. It is only
discovered as one revolves around his
own axis. The conventional life is only
a seeming life, a counterfeit, and
never a true life. Following the ideal
of another accounts largely for the
misfits in life, the human derelicts
that infest the world. As man is
self-reliant, he is strong; as he is
dependent, he is weak.
We forget to look
within for the true source of all
wisdom, for "the light that lighteth
every man that cometh into the world."
"It is only as a man puts off from
himself all external support, and
stands alone, that I see him to be
strong and to prevail." From the
divinity within we gain the philosophic
instinct correctly to appraise life's
values. We are all subject to
illusions. Day and night they dog our
footsteps. They are ever with us. The
mirages of life lure us on and on, over
many a dreary league.
We cherish the
illusion that the never-resting
impulse, or divine urge within, can be
stilled and satisfied. Tenaciously we
cling to this alluring sophism. The
divine unrest is a part of ourselves
and cannot be satisfied. It is the
divine seeking the divine; it is the
infinite within trying to find
expression, which the finite cannot
satisfy. In vain we search the world
for something to satisfy this eternal
longing. We foolishly believe that
wealth, travel, society, excitement,
intellectual attainments, will still
this tumult of the soul. We forget that
we are playing the temporary and finite
against the eternal and infinite. We
offer to the soul the toys and
playthings of time, the trifling
expedients of the hour. Their effect is
momentary only, they vanish before the
soul's returning tides. We cannot
still that infinite and surging
force, the soul's wanderlust, that
forever pushes and impels us onward to
new experiences, into new currents, but
we can modify, mold, and refine it
until it will lead us along the
ascending scale of life. We may direct
the soul's urge from the prose of life
into the realms of poetry and beauty.
We may change the desire for the
tangible into a hunger for the
possession of the intangible, but the
great soul within forever speaks. When
the divine throbs cease and the soul's
tumult is stilled, man will be in peace
and harmony with God.
Knowing these
truths, understanding these
fundamentals, we are better fitted to
enter upon the active experiences of
life. The lawyer must be skilled in the
fundamentals of the law before he can
intelligently enter upon the practice
of his profession. So man should have
knowledge of the underlying principles
of life before he can safely enter into
its activities or find its satisfying
realities. Only then is he able to turn
away from the illusions and phantoms
that crowd his path.
Discrimination is a
large part of the work of
life--weighing, judging, and appraising
its eventualities. Discrimination is
judging, elimination is acting; they
are the judicial and executive
functions of man. Our years are spent
in discarding the unessentials for the
essential, the unreal for the real, the
false for the true, the shadow for the
substance. How much of life we waste in
clinging to negatives! How little we
use in reaching out toward the
positives!
Life is the little
time allotted wherein we may learn how
to live. The most of us have learned
little when we are well past life's
meridian. We struggle without purpose
or plan. We falter and stumble on the
way. The selfish man learns nothing of
the art of living, because he is a
stranger to the finer things of life.
Only the unselfish know these--they do
good for the love of doing, they make
the world bright with their very
presence.
Man is slow to learn
that peace and satisfaction come only
from constructive work. His place in
Nature is that of a builder. Until he
builds he feels not the joy of living,
the delights of accomplishment. He that
causes two grass blades to grow where
only one grew before, has added
something to the world. He is a
co-partner with Nature, he feels
satisfaction. Every constructive act
brings its own reward; every
non-constructive, its own
disappointment. What salary would tempt
you to sit at a desk in idleness for a
year? Nature is constructive and
progressive--her processes ever tend
toward growth and perfection. Something
in us responds to the constructive and
building forces in Nature. Our only
real satisfaction is in
accomplishment.
Wealth has no
rewards to compete with the joy of
giving expression to the inner visions
of the soul. The poet, the artist, the
thinker, find their joy in creating, in
giving expression to their ideals. The
creator of ideals alone is immortal.
When all else passes away, his
creations alone survive. His work may
not bring gold, but it brings something
far more precious, because he has given
expression to the promptings of a soul.
Ideas alone are deathless.
The work of life
that creates, that gives expression,
that adds substance, that pushes the
world a little farther along, that
makes it a little better, that inspires
in someone a new hope, that lights up
some darkened pathway, is the life
worthwhile--the life that brings peace
and satisfaction to the soul.
To know the art of
living we must know much of Nature.
Until we catch its deeper meanings,
until it kindles in us a sense of
beauty, of order, of proportion and
sublimity, the valuable ideals of life
have evaded us. When we can recognize
an intelligence back of the rose,
possessing a spirit of sense and
beauty; when we can discern the
symmetry and proportion of the tree,
the grandeur of the landscape, the
splendor of the sunset, as the
expression and handiwork of a divine
intelligence, we recognize a kinship
with the grass blade and flower and
feel the touch of the universal
soul.
A kinder impulse
stirs our nature, the grosser things of
life fade away, the finer instincts
rule and govern our lives. Without
these conceptions, how commonplace is
life, how little Nature yields! We live
in the midst of beauty and see it not;
we are encompassed by music and hear it
not. Life's melodies are wasted on the
unheeding soul. "See deep enough," says
Carlyle, "and you see musically; the
heart of Nature being everywhere
music." We miss the value of Nature's
ideals, we reject her best gifts to
man, we spurn her richest bounties, we
enjoy only the common things of
life.
Of all servitudes
known to man, the most debasing is that
of spiritual servitude, the slavery to
dogmas, creeds, and institutions. After
that, the most oppressive servitude is
the tyranny of things, and the great
majority of mankind voluntarily bend
their necks to its galling yoke. Things
are masters of men; things, not mind,
not soul, are the controlling factors
in life. The love of things overshadows
the love of humanity. We carry our
gifts to the shrine of things. We
bestow our care, our patience and
industry on things. Things monopolize
thought, they dominate life. Things
have their value and their limitations.
Their use and value must not be unduly
minimized, neither must they be
overvalued. Things are obedient
servants, but harsh task-masters. They
are good or bad according as they serve
or as they master. Beautiful things
awaken beauty in the soul when it is
attuned to beauty. When not so attuned,
they awaken rather the feelings of
vanity and display.
What we call
civilized man is in part a barbarian;
he has not conquered the love of
display, the wild barbaric strain in
his own nature. We instinctively crave
display; we assume the superior
attitude; we love to dazzle with gaudy
splendor. For want of riches within, we
worship riches without. Lacking charms
of soul, we love to charm with external
splendor. We imitate royalty, that
employs pomp and circumstance to dazzle
the multitude. We parade apparel and
jewels for the same vulgar
effect.
Men have not learned
that externals cannot bring permanent
satisfaction and content, that they are
only for an hour and then pass away
before the higher demands of the soul.
When they have found the peace and
serenity that come from within, that
externals cannot give, they have caught
a glimpse of the art of living. When
man has learned to be alone, but not
lonely, isolated but not alone, to be
content without luxury, tranquil in
adversity, hopeful in defeat, he has
become master over things and knows
something of the art of living.
Many make
possessions the chief purpose in life
and mistakenly believe that these
furnish the real basis of living. It is
true wealth gives opportunities, but
how often does it blight the finer
instincts and impulses of the soul.
Gold sometimes develops a metallic
quality in the soul, which rings only
with the cold, unfeeling sound of the
metal. Some men use the dollar as the
yardstick to measure life's values.
They do not discover the finer
sensibilities or the real friendships
of life. The dollar friendship vibrates
only to the selfish touch. What do the
worshipers of Midas know of the finer
impulses of the soul, of the
comradeship and riches of culture, of
the joy of giving, of the peace of the
tranquil soul? The soul is bankrupt in
the presence of riches. The glitter of
conventionality is as cold as the
Arctic stream. Money alone does not pay
returns on life. The real dividends on
life are love, service, friendship, the
good, the true, the beautiful. These
bring that inner peace to the soul,
that surpasseth understanding and
expression.
Before we discover
the true art of living or the secret of
the essential life, we must learn to
exercise a fine judgment and tolerance
in adjusting and tranquilizing the
contingencies of life. Until we are
able to judge others with the same
consideration and judicial fairness
that we employ in judging ourselves, we
lack the essential qualities of a
well-developed life. Until then we have
not learned the secret of avoiding the
conflicts and antagonisms of life. We
must be able to view life's facts from
another's standpoint. We must judge him
and ourselves by the same rules and
standards. This is not an easy task. It
requires a fine judicial temperament to
submerge self to the point where the
scales of justice will evenly balance
between ourselves and another. It
requires a fine discipline to develop
these qualities to that state of
perfection. With most of us self
outweighs all other considerations in
pronouncing the judgments of life. But
in the last analysis the standard of
even justice is the only rule to employ
in dealing with our
fellow-man. Unless we adopt it, we
shall in time disown our own
judgments.
You say it is
impossible to overcome the lingering
relic of selfishness in us, so that we
can deal as justly with our fellow as
ourselves. Why should it be? The
difficulty lies in our inability to
view situations from the same angle as
our fellow-man. We criticize others for
not observing the square deal. Yet most
of us merit the same censure. It is the
little fellow in life who can see only
his own rights. It is only the big man
who can say, I am wrong.
The difficulties of
life arise largely out of trifles. The
little rift widens into a gulf that
might have been bridged over with a
word or a smile. The sad tragedies of
domestic life usually begin with the
trivial. We are too proud to
retreat--too stubborn to yield --and so
the breaches of life widen. A little
word of kindness, a little look of
love, might have healed them all. How
useless and uncalled for are the usual
tragedies of life!
One of life's most
valuable secrets is to avoid conflicts
and contentions. Prevention, in
troubles as in disease, is always the
best remedy. Prevention is more
effective and acts more speedily than
cures. Too often we condemn without
knowing the facts. We view situations
from one angle only. Our judgments are
based on imperfect knowledge. How
little we know of the circumstances and
environments that influence men's acts.
We cannot always see or understand the
silent forces that shape situations and
events. Yet we are always quick
to judge. How much better to exercise a
little charity, a little patience, and
a little consideration, in our travels
along the paths of life. A little
tolerance would soothe and tranquilize
the passions of men, the streams of
life would run a little more smoothly
and the world would move a little
farther toward the goal of peace.
Again and again
after all our wanderings through the
fields of philosophy we come back to
the wonderful bit of wisdom, spoken
nineteen centuries ago, "Judge not that
ye be not judged." How little do we
reckon with this great truth in the
strifes and tragedies of life. In these
few words the Gentle Master spoke a
universal truth. We forget that if we
judge, we shall be judged. If we send
out judgments, we invite judgments. If
we judge harshly, we are judged
harshly; we solicit what we send. This
law is but an exemplification of the
law of giving. We receive what we give,
nothing more. It is the law of
attraction. We attract that which we
send; like attracts like. Until we
employ this philosophy in meeting the
situations in life, in adjusting its
relations, we are still strangers to
the art of living and cannot feel the
joys and delights of the life
essential.
A good memory is
essential to a well-rounded life.
Without it we cannot cultivate and
practice that fine sense of gratitude
that good breeding and true culture
require. Memory should retain
impressions of the pleasant, worthy,
and agreeable events of life. It should
also be trained to forget those things
that bring with them a train of sad and
disagreeable reminiscences. Some things
in life are too sacred to forget--the
memories of childhood, of family, of
friends, the kindnesses and
pleasantries of life. Such memories are
constructive and keep alive the finer
instincts of the soul. Likewise the
memories of the disagreeable
experiences of life are destructive and
disturb the peace and serenity of the
soul.
We should cultivate
the art of forgetting, as well as the
art of remembering. Discrimination is
necessary in training the forces and
powers of memory. Forgetting the
unpleasant and disagreeable incidents
of life, the memories of wrongs and
injuries, and retaining in their place
only the agreeable and pleasant, is one
of the valuable arts of life.
Forgetting and
remembering--the one is as fine an art
as the other. A good memory is a fine
forgetting. It is the ability to leave
off the useless for the useful, the sad
for the pleasant, hatred for love, the
deformed for the beautiful. It is
planting in the subconscious a rose
instead of a thistle, a seed of
kindness instead of hatred, which in
due time will blossom forth in the full
radiance of their beauty, in the
personality, life, and character of the
individual.
We cannot live a
well-rounded life until we are able to
eliminate and banish fears, anxieties,
worries, and frettings from our minds.
These negatives do not add any strength
or value to life, but on the contrary
undermine and sap the energies and
potencies of mind. They impair the
judgment and unfit it for its highest
duties and functions. They introduce
confusion and disturbances into the
mind, when calmness and strength are
the primal qualities necessary for the
solution of our problems. When we live
in an atmosphere of serenity and
calmness, we gain poise and
confidence to carry with us into our
daily tasks; we give our
faculties opportunity to act and
bring to the solution of life's
problems the highest degree of
efficiency.
We live in the great
present, the eternal now, the grandest
epoch in all the ages. Our ideals must
be great, to harmonize with the ; great
present. We cannot live the full life
by taking our standards from the past.
We must feel the thrill of the present,
to develop the best within us.
As this is the age
of progress, an age of development, our
lives must be kindled by the same
spirit, to meet life's demands and
requirements. The age gives much and
requires much. It imposes a great
responsibility on every actor in life's
drama. If we act well our part, we must
accept the responsibilities imposed, in
whatever walk of life. They give man
strength, courage, and wisdom properly
to solve life's problems.
Let us pick up these
threads of philosophy and weave them
into the web and woof of the fabric of
life. Let us realize that the
constructive is the only life; that to
create is a joy; that to build is
life's purpose and man's
function.
Let us each remember
that the latent possibilities of a
divine soul are inherent within us,
slumbering perhaps, but only waiting to
be called into development and
expression.
Let us remember that
we may create, that we may build, that
we may be a positive force in the
world, that we may lift the burden from
some struggling life, that we may
radiate joy and kindness, gratitude and
love from our lives, that we may leave
the world a little brighter and mankind
a little better than we found
them.
Let us not forget
that a man hears the sweet symphonies
of life only as he listens to the voice
of his own soul; that he walks in the
paths of peace only as they are
illumined by the light within; that he
sees the facts of life aright only as
he trusts his own inner vision; that
these are the true pilots to guide us
safely over the fretted seas of
life.
Let us build to
these ideals and the world will move
forward, some life will be made a
little happier, some pathway will be
strewn with roses, and we shall feel
the glow of a heart at peace with
itself.
Finally, face the
end with equanimity and unfaltering
step, and as you gaze across the
borderland to the infinite paths that
stretch away before you, inviting you
to higher achievement, to greater
accomplishment, may you feel the
conscious joy of a life well spent and
that you have mastered the art of
living.
The
End
